Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lessons Learned from the Kansas State University Stormwater Management Project
Lee R. Skabelund, Kansas State University Landscape Architecture / Regional & Community Planning Principal Investigator / Project Manager
Large amounts of water are also sprayed on lawns, gardens, and other landscapes. Often, very little water replenishes underground water reserves.
Kansas River
The KSU ISC Rain-Garden was constructed by faculty, students and staff in Spring 2007. In Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 Lee Skabelund collaborated with Art students and faculty to create rain-bowls for the ISC Rain-Garden.
5/22/09
This collaborative design-build project engaged students, faculty, staff, and professionals in the task of considering ecologically sound ways to treat stormwater that falls on the Kansas State University (KSU) campus. In the process, two specific goals were achieved: 1) Designed and created a rain-garden along a selected area of Campus Creek to reduce stormwater run-off and improve water quality. 2) Demonstrated specific ways to address urban stormwater runoff to KSU administrators, staff, faculty, students, and visitors.
5/22/09
Engaging KSU administrators, staff, faculty, students, and local planning/design professionals is deemed essential if substantive changes in stormwater management are to occur on campus and in the larger community.
This collaborative design/build demonstration project involved key stakeholders at KSU and other communities, raising their awareness of best practices, testing design ideas on the ground, and engaging those who influence stormwater management at KSU and beyond.
Rain-Garden Maintenance:
Key Ideas to Remember: 1) Rain-Gardens need to be maintained (there is no free lunch when it comes to maintaining gardens and created or disrupted landscapes). 2) Weeding is essential (although a good hardwood mulch can reduce the number of weeds and make weeding easier). Fertilizing is not needed if you use plants adapted to the region and site. Pruning is rarely needed, though you will likely want to clip back perennials before spring (you may wish to transplant and water in seedlings and/or remove more aggressive perennials if they begin to dominate your garden). 3) Watering during the first growing season is vital (try to strike a balance between providing too much and too little water). If you choose plants well-adapted to your ecoregion and specific site, no watering should be needed once the plants are established. Check for exposed soil and erosion, and add an organic weed-free mulch. If too much sediment is flowing into the garden find the source and stabilize the area (if needed, you may need to reduce the volume or intensity of stormwater flowing into the garden). 4) Draw upon the experience of others, including folks on the east coast, mid-west, Rocky Mountains & west coast.
Bioregion/Landscape
Site
Community Context
Excerpted remarks by David W. Orr, Director of Oberlin's Environmental Studies Program, in 1999.
Three years ago we began the effort to design a building for the Environmental Studies Program. We intended to create not just a place for classes but rather a building that would help to redefine the relationship between humankind and the environmentone that would expand our sense of ecological possibilities. We began by asking: Is it possibleeven in Ohioto power buildings by current sunlight? Is it possible to create buildings that purify their own wastewater? Is it possible to build without compromising human and environmental heath somewhere else or at some later time?
Sources:
NASA (unlabled photos); Oberlin College (text & David Orr photo)
http://www.nrel.gov/buildings/highperformance/oberlin_gallery.html http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy03osti/31516.pdf
Roof water is collected in carved stone basins, then drains into a grated channel before cascading over a five-foot stone-faced retaining wall. The learning lab and auditorium buildings expand onto the courtyard, which is paved with stone, subtly-colored sandblasted concrete, and tile artifacts (historically manufactured in the watershed). Surrounding forest and meadows are pulled into the courtyard and onto building roofs.
Source: www.asla.org
A new road reveals previously hidden landscapes. A new parking lot integrates multiple functions: parking, water collection, and horticultural display. The lot includes an impervious asphalt roadway, with permeable asphalt parking bays off to the sides. A stormwater recharge bed lies under the entire lot. When it rains, water rapidly disappears through the permeable paving and into the underground basin where it infiltrates into the ground.
Morris Arboretum
Source: www.asla.org
Prairie
Jackson Street Bioretention Areas, Topeka, KS Discovery Center, Living Machine & Created Wetland Kansas City, MO
* Collaborative
Project with BNIM and other firms
(Fall 2007 Studio Project; includes designing Green Roofs for Seaton Hall and other buildings at KSU; location and construction of a demonstration green roof date TBD)
Taiwan Wing
Korean Room
Rain-Garden Sign
10/29/07
Lessons Learned
Results: participants and visitors recognize the value of water and its role in sustaining developed landscapes and natural ecosystems by considering ways they can harness rainwater for irrigation and ecological renewal. Assessment: Students learned from one another, faculty, and professionals as they collaborated in vertical design teams; presented design ideas to administrators, professionals, faculty & peers; and as they helped implement design ideas at KSUs International Student Center. They are also involved in maintenance of the ISC Rain-Garden.
12/24/08 5/1/09
Note the water still in the rain-gutter, well after water soaked into heavy clay rain-garden soils
9/17/07
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers 12 LAR Students.
The Derby green roof would serve as parklike space for walking, reading and studying, conversing and eating, and resting, relaxing and sunbathing.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers Cole Giesler & Katie Sobcynski.
These green roofs would serve primarily as a research laboratories to study the value of living roofs for energy savings and stormwater management.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers Kris Coen & Daniel Robben.
This green roof would serve as a research laboratory, outdoor reading room, and social gathering space.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers - Anthony Fox & Chris Morton.
These green roofs would offer research laboratories and a room with a view.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers - Anthony Fox & Chris Morton.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designer Lindsey Scheuneman.
10/2/08
5/22/09
5/18/09
5/19/09
3/25/09
3/30/09
5/21/09
10/3/08
lskab@ksu.edu